


not a real emerald

by robomessiah



Series: detroit: become universe [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Crystal Gems (Steven Universe), Backstory, Character Death, detroit become universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-27 23:29:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16712059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robomessiah/pseuds/robomessiah
Summary: an emerald fails his mission and, as a result, earns something much more gratifying.





	not a real emerald

Emeralds were perfect leaders.

It was a given with every one of them. They were rare gems, that took painstaking hours to carve into existence. They were well worth the trouble, though. There had never been a dud emerald, not in hundreds of years of their discovery. All perfect. 

An emerald was naturally brave, capable of thinking clearly in situations of panic and instill courage in others. Capable of holding their own in combat, as well as excellent strategists. Emeralds lead the special missions; the simple exploration or conquest simply wouldn’t do for such a perfect breed. They handled touchy, personal cases, thorns in the sides of Hessonites and Pearls and even Diamonds, from time to time. If you trust anyone, trust an emerald. 

“You’ll be expected to travel to earth and investigate the disappearance of one of Blue’s sapphires. Is that clear?” Her voice was strong, booming. Yellow Diamond herself, nearly radiating superiority. Emerald stood with his chest out, staring up at her with one unblinking right eye. In the other’s place, his namesake gem glittered in the light. She did not intimidate him; his existence was built upon doing the opposite of cowering. The other gems would scuttle and duck from her gaze; he met it fiercely. 

“Yes, yes, of course, my diamond. I wouldn’t let you down.” He took a deep breath, making sure his tone matched hers in every way; commanding, calm, proving his capability and a lack of fear. He wanted to prove his abilities to her.

“I don’t expect you to. Go on, my emerald.”

Just like that, he was off. The most elite of gems, placed in a ship with four other gems who also happened to be very skilled. A peridot, amethyst, ruby and a jasper. Things went smoothly for some time; long enough for Emerald to learn the full story from the peridot. Admittedly, he was intrigued by the sapphire they were searching for.

It went rogue and stole a ship, poofing a few gems to do it, and fled. All because the Diamond had taken him to the production zone to show him the new method of creating sapphires, and a far more improved version of itself. Emerald couldn’t understand how something as little as that could set a gem off. 

Maybe seeing its replacement had somehow upset it? But why? Gems break or fail or go into exile, naturally, they needed replacements. It was a normal occurrence. He just couldn’t wrap his head around it all.

“Emerald, there’s a problem.” For some reason, the peridot’s voice sounded taut and strained. Emerald slowly walked over, peering at his screen. 

“The atmosphere appears to be different from that of other planets. There’s something churning up ahead, we’re heading straight for it.” Jasper interjected before Emerald could ask. He slowly looked out the glass. The planet was getting closer and closer, but something dark was swirling across its surface. A great, black, writhing beast characterized with sudden flashes on its surface. There was no changing course now with how close they were.    
A bitter weight settled in his gut. He beat those worries away firmly; emeralds were not supposed to worry, they were supposed to lead.    
“What if we crash?” Ruby sounded nervous, with a wobbly tone, as it paced back and forth. Emerald put one hand on its shoulder. 

“Keep going. We can make it.” 

They were no longer ‘sailing smoothly’ as Emerald soon found out. The moment that they entered the thick, dark mass of rippling air and water, things started going wrong. The ship rocked violently, back and forth, up and down. Everything seemed to be pushing, tugging, shoving them in different directions. Things fell and hit the walls and shattered, that awful, awful sound. 

“Systems are shutting down. We’re going to crash, emerald, emerald,” Peridot’s voice was sharp, urgent, it was almost crying out. It was afraid.   
Emerald couldn’t accept that he was a little afraid too. 

“Calm down! We’ll make it down, we just need to push through whatever this is.” 

“It’s a storm, a storm. I’ve never met a gem who came back from a storm. We’re going to shatter.” Amethyst wailed.

“Emerald, the engines are about to tear apart. We can’t keep flying!”

“We will keep flying. Put them on high power.” Emerald snapped, bracing his hands against the control board in an effort to keep himself steady.

They did not keep flying for long. He wasn’t sure if he could even call it flying. The wind threw their ship around like it was a toy, sending the gems inside hurling around and hitting things. 

Emerald heard a crack. Then another, and another, and then a sound that was all too familiar.    
Jasper was in pieces on the ground, her gem being all that remained. Unrepairable. 

“She’s gone, she’s gone,” Ruby sobbed. “We’re all going to be just like that. Emerald, what do we do?” 

Emerald gripped one of the closest chairs as the ship did a flip, sending Peridot flying. Another crack.    
“Emerald, I don’t want to shatter. Please.” 

Another crack.   
“Help us, we want to go home, Emerald,” 

Another crack.

“Amethyst! Oh, stars, Amethyst, we’re all going to shatter!” 

Something was breaking. Emerald jerked his head towards the only salvation left. Something burned in the back of his throat as he gave the idea some thought.   
Then, he threw away everything that made him an emerald.

Emeralds were supposed to think. They were supposed to consider every possible outcome, how it would affect the lives of their crewmates, which one would keep the most alive. 

But, in those precious seconds, he stopped thinking. He stopped thinking and hurled himself out into the escape pod, hearing something shattering behind him.    
The cries followed him. He closed his eye tightly, trying to block out the sound. The pod plunged into what seemed to be ‘the sea’. Or the ocean. Records hadn’t been clear what the difference was. All he knew was that he was surrounded by water. It did nothing to muffle the boom of ‘thunder’, nor dull the flashes of lightning.   
He couldn’t escape their cries for help, no matter how much he tried not to hear them. It was a relief when the darkness took over again, washing over his senses and drowning him in comfort. 

He was kindly notified by the neat crack that the pod was opening. He slowly regained consciousness and registered the sounds around him. Birds hawking softly as they passed by. Waves lapping at the shore, slow and comforting. With a gentle hiss, it slid open and left Emerald at the mercy of whoever had just released him. He didn’t want to face them. Maybe one of his crewmates survived and came back to shatter him.   
That’d be mercy, really. 

“You’re a long way from home, aren’t you?” The voice sounded warm. Emerald wasn’t used to such a tone, it sounded so kind and sincere that he opened his eyes and looked. 

The creature in front of him was quickly identified as human. His face was etched with lines, notably around the corners of his eyes and his mouth. His hair was dark, chopped to a fine edge but graying at the roots. He was smiling at Emerald, like it was a creature that deserved something so kind. 

“Who...I’m..” Emerald shook off the blanket of exhaust encumbering him, slowly pushing himself into an upright position and staring at the human. 

“Slow down, slow down. What’s your name, son?” 

That sent Emerald’s processors spinning away. Name? Why would he need something like that? He didn’t know enough about humans to understand their customs, but he knew that some of them preferred to be called something other than their breed or species. It must’ve been tiring to address the same people as ‘human’ over and over.

“My..my name?” 

“Well, of course. Everyone has one. Can you remember anything?” 

“I am an emerald, i am an--” Emerald scrapped that sentence the moment it came out and started a new one. “--I’m one of yellow diamond’s elite emeralds and I--”

“That’s not your name.” The man looked at Emerald with mock stern, putting one hand on his shoulder.

“I don’t know any names.” He admitted sheepishly.

“Would you like me to pick one for you?” 

“Well..alright.” That didn’t sound so bad, a name. Emerald wasn’t right for him anymore.   
Emeralds were brave, and he’d just proven how ‘brave’ he really was.

“You look like..hmm, no, not Matthew. Mason? That can’t be right.” The man rubbed his chin, brows knitting together as he gave it some thought. Emerald listened to each suggestion, not really seeing what was wrong with any of them. They all seemed fine, really. 

Maybe ‘coward’ was a more fitting title. 

“How about Markus?” 

“Markus?” Emerald looked at the human. This human, with his old patterned sweater and black marks running up and down his arms, with warm eyes that had seen a thousand years and a smile that knew no limits, had just given Emerald something.   
A name.

He wouldn’t forget this in a hundred years.   


“Yes, Markus. It suits you.”    


“I suppose it does.” Markus nodded, a slow smile growing on his lips. 

“Welcome to Earth, Markus. I’m Carl.” 

Emeralds were supposed to be perfect. Flawless leaders who could think and plan and make the right decisions before anyone else had even considered them.

But right now, the most appealing thing in the world wasn’t being a perfect emerald, or a natural leader, or a strategist. 

Now, Emerald just wanted to be _Markus_. Maybe that wasn’t so bad. 

 


End file.
